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Tensions between the United States and Venezuela have escalated as the U.S. military attacks boats in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration says are smuggling drugs.
There have been mounting signs that the administration may be engineering some kind of confrontation with Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, who was indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on drug trafficking and corruption charges in President Trump’s first term. Mr. Trump’s team has called Mr. Maduro an illegitimate leader.
But the endgame remains opaque. Here is what we know.
Trump aides are pushing for a regime-change operation.
Some top aides to Mr. Trump want him to approve a military operation to remove Mr. Maduro from power, The New York Times has reported. The proponents of a regime-change push include Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser; John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director; and Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s chief domestic policy and homeland security policy aide.
Mr. Rubio in particular has been ratcheting up rhetoric about Mr. Maduro. The State Department in August doubled a reward for his capture, and in September Mr. Rubio told Fox News, “We’re not going to have a cartel, operating or masquerading as a government, operating in our own hemisphere.”
Trump says the United States is in an armed conflict with the cartels.
The Trump administration has made a series of disputed claims about Mr. Maduro and drug cartels.
The Trump administration has designated several Venezuelan criminal organizations as terrorist organizations. They include Tren de Aragua and the so-called Cartel de los Soles, which the U.S. government has described as a Venezuela-based criminal group.
Mr. Trump and his aides have accused Mr. Maduro of controlling Tren de Aragua and of heading Cartel de los Soles.
